Power, fiction and truth

Just a quick comment on Yuval Noah Harari’s recent post on the New York Times The Stone philosophy column. In that post, Mr Harari makes the point that fiction (including “fake news” in today’s context), is more potent than truth in order to mobilize people, by manipulating their beliefs. Truth is necessary to wield power; after all, it’s hard to avoid the law of gravitation. However, in a sense, fiction is more important because it is the key to leveraging the masses.

I would like to add a further point to Mr Harari’s analysis of the power of fiction. The leader that resorts to fiction plays with his/her followers’ wish for another reality, an almost magical, and maybe unconscious wish that their reality would be the fiction that the leader conjures up. The follower who lives in the “reality distortion field” of the leader is in awe of this leader who has the magical power to alter reality. Isn’t the ability of changing reality itself the ultimate power? In the unconscious mind of the follower, there could be an atavistic reverence for the sorcerer who is able to alter everything. There could be an unconscious process of irrational, magical thinking underpinning the power of fiction.

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